More than 75% of new mothers try to return to work after having a baby. Less than half make it through the first year.
One of the major obstacles women face when returning to work after having a child is finding a safe and comfortable place to pump breast milk.
To tackle the issue, lactation suites are coming to Dallas this fall, thanks to Work & Mother. The company designs and builds shared corporate lactation suites where working mothers can go and pump breast milk while at work in a safe and comfortable way. By creating a shared space in an office building, it reduces the costs for individual businesses and landlords.
Designated pumping areas are required by law, but many businesses don’t have them, or if they do, they’re in an area that doubles as a conference room, a private office or even a supply closet.
“We’re having some landlords call because they say ‘Okay, we just did all these really cool amenities. We’ve got foosball and tenant lounges, but we have moms pumping [breast milk] in closets,’” said Abbey Donnell, co-founder of Work & Mother. “They’re starting to see there’s another half of the equation as far as who is working in their buildings.”
Described as “spa-like but professional,” the suites look like a small locker room space or spa changing area, and they provide private rooms for women to pump.
Each room is stocked with a hospital-grade pump, milk storage bags, lanolin breast pads and cleaning solutions, and the mother brings her own attachment set, the part of a breastfeeding kit that touches the body and the breast milk.
“Our moms literally come to work with nothing extra and they leave with just their milk,” Donnell said. “It’s very freeing to allow them to focus on work when they’re at work and their family when they’re at home.”
Donnell said employers around the country are struggling to find new hires, and working moms are a large demographic for potential talent. The lactation suites can be an important amenity for businesses as employees return to the office.
“It’s an extremely tough time to be a mom, especially a working mom, and if employers don’t adapt to supporting the workforce in that way, they’re not going to be able to hire,” Donnell said. Businesses should “set an example of what the standards and support and humanity and decency of a working mom situation should look like.”
Suzanne Brown used conversations she had with women in her life, as well as her own pumping experience, to start Mompowerment, a workplace strategy group that helps working moms get back into the workforce and advocate for their needs. Brown, an author, public speaker and consultant, has interviewed hundreds of moms about their experiences.
“What I normally hear about is the nightmare side of trying to figure out how to pump where you’re like in a women’s restroom trying to manage pump equipment along with nothing falling in the toilet and not having anything touch the floor,” she said.
Brown admitted she was lucky when she went back to work. Her company had two dedicated pumping rooms, one equipped with a hospital-grade pump. She said, however, this was not the norm. Though having a pumping location is required by law, the language is vague, and employers are only required to have a “dedicated space” for mothers.
Brown said it’s “a relative term as far as a dedicated space. That could literally be a supply closet where anybody can open the door.”
Brown regularly works with women to help them advocate for themselves in the workplace and share with their employers what they need in order to be a productive employee, whether that is breast-pumping amenities, flexibility in their schedules or moving to a part-time position.
What is not an option, she said, is for breastfeeding women to be told they should just work from home.
“There’s no question that there is a difference between being seen in the office, having those conversations, having those what we call ‘random touch points’ with decision makers and senior leadership where you’re walking down the hallway and they recognize you from a meeting,” Brown said. “You miss this when you work from home.”
Brown said employers should see lactation suites or breastfeeding amenities as a way to recruit and retain mothers. “The pandemic really kind of pulled back the curtain on the realities of working motherhood, and that’s one of the benefits of what happened,” she said. During the worst of the pandemic, 1.4 million mothers left the workforce.
Facilities like Work & Mother offer a space where mothers can work while they pump, and pumping can be more productive when a mother is more calm.
Work & Mother’s first Dallas location will open at Lincoln Centre in October as part of a $43 million overhaul of the complex, according to Jack Nye, director of operations for the center. He says management saw a lactation suite as a necessary amenity for tenants, just like a gym or cafe.
Lactation pods like Mamava can provide the same appeal of a lactation suite but with more flexibility. The pods can be moved around a space once installed, and they’re appealing for smaller businesses that may not be able to construct a larger project.
Mamava has 11 pods in Dallas, two in the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center and the rest in private businesses. The company began launching pods in Dallas in 2017.
“Mamava lactation pods are designed as a private and comfortable space for a parent to breastfeed or pump wherever they go. Sometimes folks are leaving their baby to go to work; other times, they’re navigating public spaces, with or without their child,” said Mamava co-founder and chief brand officer Sascha Mayer. “In every case, breastfeeding and pumping parents need the option of a quiet space equipped with everything a parent needs to nurse or pump.”
The pods are a less expensive alternative to the lactation suites and start at $10,000 per pod. The pods, once delivered, can be set up in a matter of hours. They don’t have equipment or milk storage capabilities, but work well for women on the go.
Mamava and Work & Mother are able to provide a network of pumping locations across Dallas-Fort Worth, and both companies have associated apps that moms can use to find somewhere safe and clean to pump.
Mayer agreed that pumping locations should be seen as a necessity for employers.
“Lactation support needs to be recognized as an important health benefit. Lactation support in the workplace benefits both employees and businesses. Working parents who have access to pumping spaces are known to have less days missed at work, higher productivity levels and are more loyal employees,” she said.
Mayer said Mamava has gotten more interest from companies since the start of the pandemic, particularly from businesses with front-line workers.
She said that after working from home for two years, “many parents have realized that they have a choice when it comes to creating work-life circumstances that work for them. Businesses understand that it’s more important than ever to create inclusive work environments — which means everything from providing schedule flexibility to ensuring that there’s a comfortable, suitable place to pump breast milk when they are spending time away from their babies.”
